March 18--When some of Cook County Jail's toughest inmates gaze out of their tiny cell windows, they can see, and sometimes perhaps smell, the sweet taste of freedom, billowing from the chimneys of a Kellogg's fruit snack factory.
But for more than a decade, employees of the Kellogg's plant across 31st Street from the jail have allegedly been quietly enjoying the hospitality of county taxpayers too.
That's because -- according to a federal lawsuit filed Thursday -- Kellogg has since 2005 illegally helped itself to $2.1 million worth of steam heat supplied by the county to warm its plant at 31st and South Sacramento Avenue, in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood.
Now Cook County says it wants the cereal giant to snap, crackle and pay up.
The arcane dispute hinges on a 1973 agreement between Cook County and the city of Chicago, in which the county took control of a municipal heating plant in return for a promise to supply heat to a number of nearby buildings, including the jail and what is now the Kellogg's plant.
Cookie and cracker manufacturer Keebler, now a subsidiary of Kellogg, took over the plant in 2005, but neither it nor Kellogg has ever paid for the steam heat, which costs $43,000 per month, the county alleges in the suit.
It isn't clear from the suit when the county first billed Kellogg, but the county says it warned the company in April 2015 that it would cut off the heat supply unless Kellogg signed a service agreement and paid what it owes.
The county wants U.S. District Judge John Z. Lee to rule that Kellogg doesn't have the right to free heat and to order it to pay the $2.1 million.
A Kellogg spokeswoman said Friday that Kellogg does not comment on pending litigation.
kjanssen@tribpub.com
